


Up

by rendawnie



Series: Pieces [8]
Category: GOT7
Genre: Alternate Universe, Awkwardness, Cameos, Chatting & Messaging, Epistolary, First Meetings, Flirting, Love Stories, M/M, Missed Connection, Neighbors, Surprise Ending, Wistful
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-08
Updated: 2017-07-08
Packaged: 2018-11-29 11:41:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,988
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11440116
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rendawnie/pseuds/rendawnie
Summary: Sometimes, you just have to be able to see the writing on the wall. Er, window.Soundtrack: "Up", Olly Murs





	Up

_{Hi! 3C here! Just a small request - if you could please keep it down up there after about 2am? I work early. Thank you~_

 

_Yo 3C, 4C reporting for duty. I’ll keep this short: no. <3} _

 

_*_

 

 **_5:16pm >_ ** _This is literally the worst day of my life, Jaebum. I got yelled at for an hour by the big boss for a one letter typo right at the end of the day, therefore I had to run to catch the bus, and so now I’m made of sweat and The Cutest person I’ve ever seen just sat down next to me help_

 

 ** _5:27pm >_ ** _yo am i too late to help_

 **_5:27pm >_ ** _No but I hate you_

 **_5:32pm >_ ** _that makes sense_

 

 **_7:49pm >_ ** _yugyeom_

 **_7:50pm >_ ** _i just woke up from a two hour nap am i too late to help_

 **_7:51pm >_ ** _...yes_

 **_7:55pm >_ ** _do you wanna go get a slice of pizza when you finally make it home_

 **_7:56 >_ ** _Jaebum I’m at my second job now_

 **_7:56 >_ ** _I’ve been here for over two hours_

 **_7:57 >_ ** _My second job is at a ramyun restaurant, if you’ll recall, so I’m good on food._

 

 **_1:13am >_ ** _ok I’m gonna come get some ramyun then_

 **_1:16am >_ ** _We’re closed now, Jaebum._

 

_*_

 

_{It’s 3C again. Sorry to keep leaving notes stuck to your window, but it’s just easy. Did you know you make the weirdest noises during sex?_

 

_4C here. Is it weirder that I make the noises, or that you spend time listening to them?}_

 

_*_

 

 **_6:01pm > _ ** _He was on the bus again today, Mark. I think he like. Permanently rides the bus now and permanently sits next to me._

 **_6:07pm >_ ** _That’s great! Ask him if he likes ramyun and invite him to the restaurant! :D_

 **_6:08pm > _ ** _If only I had your unfailing sense of optimism._

 **_6:15pm > _ ** _Why shouldn’t you be optimistic? You’re Kim Fucking Yugyeom!!_

 **_6:16pm > _ ** _Ok_

 **_6:20pm > _ ** _Master of Flirtation!_

 **_6:21pm > _ ** _That’s not even a little true_

 **_6:22pm > _ ** _jlesfjwelrho3ihr0ehvv0ubhn3qwefs_

 

 **_6:58pm > _ ** _Late response, but, you ok over there bub?_

 **_7:02pm > _ ** _What if it had been something worse than me spilling ramyun all down the front of my shirt_

 **_7:03pm > _ ** _What if, Mark_

 **_7:04pm > _ ** _Would any of you have answered in time?_

 

 **_7:27pm > _ ** _There’s at least a 6% chance we would_

 **_7:31pm > _ ** _How comforting._

 

*

 

_{Hi, it’s 3C. Are you having problems with your plumbing? I’ve got a leak in my ceiling that logically started in your apartment._

 

_Heyyyyyyyy 4C in the houseeeeee. Nope, no plumbing problems, I’ve just been experimenting with performance art. I make a damn pretty soft grunge mermaid, but I may have accidentally broken a pipe or something in all the thrashing around I was doing to test out the tail I made. My bad. I’ll call someone about that._

 

_...I have so many questions, 4C.}_

 

_*_

 

 **_5:17pm > _ ** _Jinyoung_

 **_5:17pm > _ ** _Jinyoung he’s touching my hand_

 **_5:18pm > _ ** _Jinyoung he asked if we could share my earbuds on the bus ride home and then he scooted all close and he smells like some sort of luxury S &M club and now he is  t o u c h i n g  m y  h a n d  for almost no reason _

**_5:19pm > _ ** _I’m gonna shit_

 **_5:21pm > _ ** _not one of your better seduction tactics gyeomie_

 **_5:22pm > _ ** _heres an idea_

 **_5:22pm > _ ** _be like “hey bby ive got something bigger you can touch”_

 **_5:22pm > _ ** _then pull out one of your GIANT LAW TEXTBOOKS CAUSE YOURE A FUCKIN NERD_

 **_5:23pm > _ ** _...was that supposed to be helpful or just mean_

 **_5:24pm > _ ** _yes_

 **_5:25pm > _ ** _Why am I friends with any of you?_

 

_*_

 

_{4C - Are you okay? I heard what sounded like crying coming from up there for most of last night. Please let me know._

 

_3C - I’m fine. We should probably wash these windows if we’re going to keep sticking paper to them on hot summer days. Gross._

 

_I feel like you’re deflecting, 4C._

 

_The fuck I am. I just don’t have anything to talk about besides the dirty windows we send messages to each other on and the fact that all Youngjaes are the devil._

 

_Did you get dumped? I’m sorry. You can cry some more if you want, 4C. I won’t complain._

 

_I wasn’t crying, 3C. That was a ghost you heard._

 

_Whatever you need me to believe._

 

_Thanks.}_

 

_*_

 

 **_5:21pm > _ ** _This is it. I have reached the apex of my humiliation._

 **_5:22pm > _ ** _Those were some awfully big words, cowboy_

 **_5:23pm > _ ** _You know, even if you don’t get my big words, at least you answer on time, Jackson. I appreciate that._

 **_5:23pm > _ ** _:D_

 **_5:24pm > _ ** _Anyway why are you at the pecs of your humiliation_

 **_5:25pm > _ ** _I’m on the bus and Cute Bus Guy is here and like, can’t he even miss just one day so I can have a giant pimple in peace_

 **_5:26pm > _ ** _Maybe he has a zit kink, you should ask him_

 **_5:26pm > _ ** _Gross. You’re gross._

 **_5:30pm > _ ** _He just told me I look “nice” today_

 **_5:30pm > _ ** _Do you think he means like “nice” as in “I need to say something to you to bolster your confidence because this mountain on the end of your nose is obviously doing a number on your self esteem” or like_

 **_5:31pm > _ ** _“Nice” like “excuse me while I commit your sex hair to memory so I can tug one out over it later”_

 **_5:32pm > _ ** _Ugh why do I have such weird thoughts on the bus_

 **_5:41pm > _ ** _Jackson_

 **_5:41pm > _ ** _Are you still there?_

 **_5:43pm > _ ** _Oh I’m here, Yugyeom. I’m just not sure if you actually need me for this conversation you’re having with yourself._

 

_*_

 

_{Hey 4C. I haven’t heard those awful sex noises in a while. You okay up there?_

 

_Yep. Doing great. Just haven’t really been in the mood lately, not that it’s any of your business._

 

_Chill, 4C. I don’t want to know about your sex life, I just wondered if you were dead or something._

 

_Oh. Nope. No death here. Unless you mean the slow and intense demise of my heart because I, Sir 3C, have a CRUSH._

 

_Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand tell me everything.}_

 

_*_

 

 **_8:36pm > _ ** _I’m not being weird, Jaebum. I just don’t know what’s going on with my neighbor, he’s completely stopped talking to me on our window messages, and Cute Bus Guy has only been on the bus twice in the last two weeks and he’s been distant both times, and. It’s just. Concerning._

 **_9:01pm > _ ** _wait, you have two different dudes going? YOU TEASE_

 **_9:02pm > _ ** _I have exactly zero dudes going and at least fifty-six fantasies_

 

 **_10:42pm > _ ** _that’s my boy_

 

_*_

 

On a Saturday morning in late fall, there’s a ruckus outside Yugyeom’s apartment, and it’s been so long since he heard a ruckus, since he heard anything from his neighbor in 4C, that he nearly kills himself vaulting out of bed to get to the window and see what’s happening. It could be 4C, and then he could finally stop considering whether it would be appropriate to lurk in the hallway on the fourth floor until he sees someone going into 4C, just to make sure the guy’s all right.

He makes it to the window mostly in one piece, and he doesn’t see the worn, faded note stuck in the railing of his fire escape, but Yugyeom looks out onto the street and sees Cute Bus Guy, and then he has several consecutive strokes and that’s really the only way he can explain how he gets from his apartment to the main door of the building so fast.

Yugyeom throws the door open and stumbles out of the building awkwardly, and Cute Bus Guy is talking to someone and there’s a half-full moving van parked by the curb and Yugyeom thinks he hears Cute Bus Guy say something about “4C” before he looks up and catches a glimpse of Yugyeom.

It’s amazing, seeing someone’s face change when they lay eyes on a person they have feelings for. Everything softens, sparkles. It’s involuntary. It just _happens._

Yugyeom sees the softening sparkles on Cute Bus Guy’s face, but he’s got a mighty need for information so he ignores them for the moment, making his way across the sidewalk to the moving van. He doesn’t know what to say when he gets there, what he _should_ or shouldn’t say. What’s appropriate, and what’s allowed. He considers it for nearly too long, and finally comes up with something.

“4C?”

He’s rewarded with a slow, blinking stare, before Cute Bus Guy finally formulates a response. “Yeah. Are you...are you _3_ C?”

Yugyeom nods. “Yeah. 3C. I’m Yugyeom.”

Cute Bus Guy swallows, hard. “4C. Bambam.”

Yugyeom flicks his eyes behind Bambam, to the large truck, and then back. “You’re leaving?” he asks, quieter now.

Bambam frowns a little. “Yeah, um...I’m moving overseas for a job. You didn’t get my note?”

Yugyeom shakes his head. “I didn’t get a note. I thought you’d stopped talking to me.”

“No,” Bambam says immediately, biting his lip. “I mean. I tried to...I tried to maybe be a little distant, on the bus...once I knew I was leaving. But I wrote you this long note and I told you everything and...and you didn’t get it…and you're...you're the cute guy from the bus, too? And...” He trails off, looking perplexed.

Yugyeom waves a hand dismissively. “I’ll find it later. I just...I wish you weren’t leaving,” he says, the words halting and foreign in his mouth, because he’s never done this before. He’s never cared before.

Bambam blinks up at Yugyeom, and he’s all lips and eyelashes and Yugyeom wants to die or kiss him or run away, and he can’t decide between the three, so he brings his arm up between them, palm held out for a handshake, because it makes the most sense, he guesses. There’d be no point in a kiss, not now. Not when Bambam’s leaving.

Bambam stares at Yugyeom’s hand for a moment, then he looks back up at Yugyeom, then back down again. He repeats the action once more before he chuckles a little and steps forward.

Yugyeom isn’t aware of the kiss until it’s over. He’s even less aware of the way Bambam is pressing a slip of paper into his hand. All he knows is how, not even five minutes after all these revelations, Bambam is gone.

The taxi following the moving van turns the corner at the end of the street, and Yugyeom glances down at the paper in his palm. A phone number. Something that could have been the beginning, but skipped all the way to the end.

*

“And that’s the story of Yugyeom,” Bambam finishes, stretching his long legs on Taehyung’s couch while his boyfriend stares at him incredulously.

“So you’re telling me that the love of your life--” Taehyung begins.

“Thus far, yes,” Bambam interjects.

“Was someone you never actually _dated_?? Never actually went on a date with. Someone who was actually a complete stranger in _two_ ways, until the very end.”

“We still keep in touch from time to time. He's seeing someone now. But I'll always be his missed connection. It’s kind of romantic, no?” Bambam says with a fond smile, and Taehyung shakes his head in disbelief.

“Oh, honey, if you think _that’s_ romantic, my job’s gonna be _easy._ ”

Before Bambam can reply, Taehyung’s stretched on top of him and they’re kissing and it’s warm and cozy in Taehyung’s apartment and he’s thinking about Yugyeom, just a little, but then Taehyung does this unexpected, wonderful trick with his tongue and slides his hand under Bambam’s shirt and Bambam’s laughing and he hopes that wherever Yugyeom is, he’s found someone to make him laugh just like this, too.


End file.
